Post Game Tweets: Fisher-"We kept things very, very basic on Defense"

[DaveFan'51]

No mention of Westbrooks?

Remarkable because it was obvious to anyone who watched the whole game that Westbrooks clearly out-played Sam! Sam had 2 tkls and 1 sack, Westbrooks had 4 tkls and 1 sack, and was playing from all over the field! It may only be week 2 of pre season but I definitely give Westbrooks a Big lead over Sam!!

 

[CGI_Ram]

I tend to believe the vanilla excuse more for the defense than the offense.

Defensively; I truly believe the Rams want to come out and surprise some people to gain early season momentum.

Offensively; it's more about the oline than anything. They clearly lack cohesion and it's somewhat understandable with Long/Saffold not 100% out there.

Then again... As others have said; we were told this same thing last preseason.

 

[tonyl711]

the starting MLB, DT, DB and Safety were all missing on Defense. the starting LT, LG and OC were all gone on Offense, they played a vanilla game against a perennial play off team and you expected what?

 

[MTRamsFan]

Plain vanilla or not, Fisher said they just wanted them to "line up and play." If you are fundamentally sound with good technique, it doesn't matter what GB does, we should be more consistent in all phases of the game. The first two series, on both sides of the ball, had positives and negatives. However, I thought the offense showed more energy than the defense, although the run game is a concern. We should be able to get Stacy more than 6 rushing yards. What worries me about the defense is they seem to be playing without any energy. I really thought, if anything, Williams would have these guys flying around with their hair on fire. So far I see guys playing slow and tentatively, which leads me to believe these guys are either out of shape or don't know what they are doing, and I'm not going to concede to either of those excuses. Granted we are missing some key starters, but backups are one injury away from playing a significant amount of time, or even becoming a starter. They need to play like they are a starter. Am I willing to hit the panic button? Hell no, this is week 2 of the preseason. I just want to see them take a big step next week regardless if we play vanilla or not.

 

[Bluesy]

Another quote from Fisher "line up and play and not rely on the pressure." So we can see what we're like right now without any pressure. Hopefully that will improve.

I'm with everyone else pretty much. Not gonna hit the panic button but you still want to see your guys play well and not have to make up excuses.

 

[Ramathon]

Nick Wagoner @nwagoner

Jeff Fisher said he wanted defense to "just go out and play." Kept emphasizing how basic Rams were on defense.

I'm not terribly worried about the results at this point given how many starters didn't play. That said, I do have a couple concerns about this 'vanilla' or 'basic' concept.....

1) If you're not going to line up and play at least something resembling the way you're going to play when the real games start, how the heck can you evaluate players and their ability to play in your system? You're essentially just using game time as another practice..except with tackling included. And that means the team is going to have to learn to 'gel' and play in the actual system during the regular season.

2) And please don't tell me teams play this 'vanilla' stuff in preseason to avoid exposing their plans for the regular season. While there may be a smidgeon of truth in that for teams with new coaching staffs, it doesn't hold water for the Rams. Everybody and their uncle knows what the Rams are likely to be good/bad at based on the past couple yr under Fisher. And everybody and their uncle has years of seeing how Greg Williams coaches defenses. So, chances are pretty good everybody and their uncle can pretty accurately predict what the Rams approach to D will be once the games start to count.

Somebody tell me what I'm missing.(?)

 

[CGI_Ram]

1) If you're not going to line up and play at least something resembling the way you're going to play when the real games start, how the heck can you evaluate players and their ability to play in your system? You're essentially just using game time as another practice..except with tackling included. And that means the team is going to have to learn to 'gel' and play in the actual system during the regular season.

Good point.

 

[LACHAMP46]

My concerns are simple, why not work on the basic coverage you plan on implementing? And if you plan on doing a lot of off coverage, that's a problem. Lots of posters here are getting it. If your D-Line has backups that could be starters, you don't need to blitz. Then why are they getting gashed in the run game? The Linebackers are only missing one starter, granted he calls the defensive signals. If Dunbar is so familiar with what Williams does, why is this unit looking so bad? Why not let Dunbar call the sets from his Will LB position and play Bates at MLB? Or Hill? Or Wilson? In fact, why not pull Armstrong out, instruct him, then put him back in? Why not try someone else in his spot, in game, against the opponents 1's & 2's.
I'll give the O-Line a break...I trust Boo more than Williams at this point...Boo is missing Saffold, Long, and G-Rob is a rookie. I will say this, Wells is a major problem against any serious nose guard. He's been a liability since 2012. How this guy remains a starter I don't know.
The rest of the team is shaping up fine besides these concerns.

 

[TheDYVKX]

To be fair, the Packers are one of the best teams in the NFL, especially when Rodgers is in. So the fact we got beat doesn't concern me as much. Tons of teams have gotten wrecked by that offense.

 

[Robocop]

Im afraid what will happen if JL actually goes down for the season. who leads the D? is it Dunbar playing the middle? does he have the football IQ? i know its was vanilla D yesterday but damn. JL is the one that keeps things clicking when they start getting different looks. If thats the lineup if he goes down im concerned

 

[Oldgeek]

I tend to believe the vanilla excuse more for the defense than the offense.

Defensively; I truly believe the Rams want to come out and surprise some people to gain early season momentum.

Offensively; it's more about the oline than anything. They clearly lack cohesion and it's somewhat understandable with Long/Saffold not 100% out there.

Then again... As others have said; we were told this same thing last preseason.

If you stir jello it never sets. Same goes for the OL....Hooey...really?????

 

[-X-]

Im afraid what will happen if JL actually goes down for the season. who leads the D? is it Dunbar playing the middle? does he have the football IQ? i know its was vanilla D yesterday but damn. JL is the one that keeps things clicking when they start getting different looks. If thats the lineup if he goes down im concerned

Probably Dunbar, yeah. Losing your MLB is like losing your QB. They're hard to replace and the backup is always considerably less talented. That's why, with all the things people are hoping for this year, I'm just kinda hoping for health and a little bit of luck. The rest should take care of itself.

 

[Thordaddy]

Agree 100%. The Fisher 'light switch' approach to the regular season didn't work last year.

Seems like we won the first game against a team that housed us without Sam , so I don't think that statement holds much water, gotta give our opponents some credit












i

 

[Philly5]

Seems like we won the first game against a team that housed us without Sam , so I don't think that statement holds much water, gotta give our opponents some credit

i

Not sure what you are referring to. I am talking about the first 4 games of the 2013 season that were so dismal we had to 'reset' before finishing off the season. With our 2014 schedule that would be a disaster.

 

[Thordaddy]

Not sure what you are referring to. I am talking about the first 4 games of the 2013 season that were so dismal we had to 'reset' before finishing off the season. With our 2014 schedule that would be a disaster.

I'm saying we beat the Cardinals first game,a team that kicked our asses later in the year ,that we weren't doing as well with our recs. as the next three games were losses and decided to change our approach doesn't mean that the switch didn't turn on and the team wasn't playing at the best they could for a young and very inexperienced team. You questioned Fishers "light switch " approach,I'm saying the switch was ON good enough to beat the Cards who ended up 10-6,not too shabby as things turned out, and FWIW IMO this team could have been far more competitive even beaten some of the teams we lost to with our franchise QB.
We are built and were built to rush the passer ,our offense has to score to make that a weapon 9 games without your #1 QB made the difference in an over .500 team vs. slightly under.
Fact is playing the young guys as much as possible is IMO the exact right approach and seeing them under the gun instead of in a romp because you played your starters against the other teams 2's and 3's in preseason, giving them the idea they were better than they might be isn't conducive to establishing a sense of urgency.

Limiting your key at risk players exposure to injury during the pre-season is prudent IMO

 

[Philly5]

I'm saying we beat the Cardinals first game,a team that kicked our asses later in the year ,that we weren't doing as well with our recs. as the next three games were losses and decided to change our approach doesn't mean that the switch didn't turn on and the team wasn't playing at the best they could for a young and very inexperienced team. You questioned Fishers "light switch " approach,I'm saying the switch was ON good enough to beat the Cards who ended up 10-6,not too shabby as things turned out, and FWIW IMO this team could have been far more competitive even beaten some of the teams we lost to with our franchise QB.
We are built and were built to rush the passer ,our offense has to score to make that a weapon 9 games without your #1 QB made the difference in an over .500 team vs. slightly under.
Fact is playing the young guys as much as possible is IMO the exact right approach and seeing them under the gun instead of in a romp because you played your starters against the other teams 2's and 3's in preseason, giving them the idea they were better than they might be isn't conducive to establishing a sense of urgency.

Limiting your key at risk players exposure to injury during the pre-season is prudent IMO

IMO, we were not ready at the start of last season. Thus the 'reset'.

I could care less about winning a preseason game. Seems like our 1s play against their 1s, our 2s against their 2s, etc... I care when our number 1 defense goes out there and it looks like a college team playing pros. I understand we have some injuries, but if we don't get the tackling issues straightened out, AP will destroy us in week 1.

Just getting a sense of 'déjà vu' after 2 preseason games. Hopefully Fisher has the pulse of the team measured correctly this year. Last year he was certainly way off with an offensive philosophy we could not pull off and a DC in over his head.

 

[Thordaddy]

IMO, we were not ready at the start of last season. Thus the 'reset'.

I could care less about winning a preseason game. Seems like our 1s play against their 1s, our 2s against their 2s, etc... I care when our number 1 defense goes out there and it looks like a college team playing pros. I understand we have some injuries, but if we don't get the tackling issues straightened out, AP will destroy us in week 1.

Just getting a sense of 'déjà vu' after 2 preseason games. Hopefully Fisher has the pulse of the team measured correctly this year. Last year he was certainly way off with an offensive philosophy we could not pull off and a DC in over his head.

Once again I disagree winning THE first game basically proves readiness especially since that self same beat us so soundly later.
I also think the next game where we scored 24 yielding a two game average of 25 1/2 points which would rank 11th in the league for a season average .4 points below New Orlean and ahead of the Niners.

http://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats/team-points-per-game/2013/

It wasn't until the third game that the wheels fell off the offense boht games blowouts where we were made one dimensional and unable to do what we do best which was and is rush the passer.
I'm not Shotty's biggest fan,but he's not in over his head , he was tasked with developing so many young players that needed experience to gain consistent performance that I'm not sure many OC's would have done better ,I in fact give him a huge amount of credit for repurposing an offense mid season in order to protect a defense that had given up a bunch of points only the Denver Broncos scored more points per game last year than we averaged giving up those first four games.
Our defensive failures caused the problem,Shotty was doing a pretty good job IMO and did what he had to do to help the defense.

 

[Philly5]

Once again I disagree winning THE first game basically proves readiness especially since that self same beat us so soundly later.
I also think the next game where we scored 24 yielding a two game average of 25 1/2 points which would rank 11th in the league for a season average .4 points below New Orlean and ahead of the Niners.

http://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats/team-points-per-game/2013/

It wasn't until the third game that the wheels fell off the offense boht games blowouts where we were made one dimensional and unable to do what we do best which was and is rush the passer.
I'm not Shotty's biggest fan,but he's not in over his head , he was tasked with developing so many young players that needed experience to gain consistent performance that I'm not sure many OC's would have done better ,I in fact give him a huge amount of credit for repurposing an offense mid season in order to protect a defense that had given up a bunch of points only the Denver Broncos scored more points per game last year than we averaged giving up those first four games.
Our defensive failures caused the problem,Shotty was doing a pretty good job IMO and did what he had to do to help the defense.

I was talking primarily about the Defense. We can agree to disagree on the start last season. I just hope we avoid a repeat after a month in. Hoping we are saving our tackling and covering skills for week 1.